


the sun rises on a grateful world

by taviceline



Category: Captain America (Movies), MCU, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Gen, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Spoilers, don't watch unless you saw endgame, i literally cannot stress enough, im.......not sure if its good lmao but whatever!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-09 14:48:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18640291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taviceline/pseuds/taviceline
Summary: the endgame is finished. while thanos is gone, his army destroyed, there's still plenty left in his wake. (aka your standard fix it fic post-marvel movie)





	the sun rises on a grateful world

**Author's Note:**

> cannot stress it further. don't watch unless you've seen endgame.

“We have to get all the stones back to their point in time, erase the alternate universes.” Bruce glanced up at Steve as he calibrated the quantum tunnel. “You ready?”

A short nod as his grip tightened on the case of stones. Even if it wouldn’t potentially cause a time paradox, there was no one who wanted them to stay in this time period. Not with the heavy price that one had on them all. A price that could be reversed…

Sam immediately shocked Steve out of his thoughts, smiling in a way that made Steve’s heart ache in memory of missing him. “I can go if you want me to. It’s not like I’m out there flyin’ around before 2014.”

“Sam, I just got you back.” The weight of his words was only lightened by the smile only Sam could get from him. Steve’s mind traveled back to Washington, D.C. The pararescue willing to follow him to possible death. The man who opened his home to two fugitives. The friend who stayed beside him in the hospital. Steve couldn’t risk losing him again, he refused to. What was only a blink of an eye for the fallen had been five years and twenty-something days for those who remained.  “I can do it. I’ll see you in a second.”

Bucky scoffed, walking up to the pair. The light after the battle had done wonders on everyone, his posture eased and relaxed. Where there would have been a bittersweet grin, it was genuine and made the skin around his eyes wrinkle. “Y’know, you’re gonna have to explain all the time travel to me when you get back.”

The pair of soldiers walked to the side of the quantum tunnel, silent for what felt like another year. “I missed you, Buck.” Steve stopped to break the silence. There were five years worth of unsaid remarks. Things he promised he would say when given a second chance. Here they were and all he could say were four words. The silence was heavy with feelings that neither could put into words but they knew. A connection unbroken in more than seventy years was sparked again, untouched by Infinity stones or time. 

“I know you did.” 

“Do me a favor.” Steve set the case down with a coy grin. “Don’t do anything stupid until I get back.”

He’d gotten more sentimental since he was gone. Bucky scoffed but amusement lit up his features. “How can I? You’re takin’ all the stupid with you.”

Time, Power, Reality, Mind. They’d been returned easily enough--if something being easy involved avoiding past versions of oneself and the team. 

Steve slid the Tesseract back into place, shutting the safe behind him. Footsteps on the other side of the door prompted him to hide beside equipment somehow younger than him. Heels clicked softly against the tile floor and a British voice rang out. “Darling, it’ll be a while before I’m home again.”

Her words had him smiling, despite the fact that he could only see her through a crack in the door. She was still beautiful. And happy. Contrary to what Steve expected, there was no pang of sadness in wishes of what could’ve been. A normal life in his own time without the worries of the country on his shoulders. A spouse. A kid. Experiences without the pain of losing friends on a mission or in battle. 

Yet this wasn’t his time anymore. Steve glanced about the equipment, to the case that now held the Tesseract. It brought to mind memories of his family. Sam, Bucky, Thor. Rhodey. Bruce. And Natasha, the first Avenger he met back in 2012. He wasn’t the same man who went into the ice and hadn’t been for years. From the moment since he came out, there was always the fight. The next mission, the next villain to face. Captain America is the symbol of the nation. A hero. A historical figure. An exhibit in the goddamn Smithsonian but who was Steve Rogers now?

The crimson and white suit inched over his body as time changed around him. The quantum realm faded into a cold, desolate mountain. Steve dropped everything, seeing Clint and Natasha wrestling with each other for control. 

The look of strain turned to shock in her eyes. “Steve?”

Clint followed her gaze before being quickly knocked out by Steve. Natasha rose to her feet, scowling in disbelief and confusion. “What the hell are you doing here? You’re supposed to be--”

“We won, Nat.” Steve watched the realization wash over her and extended his hand. “We did it.”

She glanced from his hand to Clint, laid on the cold and hard stone. “I thought I told you to get a life, Steve. To move on. Part of me wouldn’t have been surprised if you stayed back in the day.”

“And I said ‘you first.’” Behind Natasha, Steve watched as the Red Skull dissipated into the shadows with the glowing orange orb. He shrugged off her assumption, hopefulness shifting to nostalgia. “What would I have stayed for? Our family’s in our time. Plus, homophobia and polio for you guys? Not a fair trade.”

In the present, it had only taken about fifteen seconds. A journey spanning years with hardships and losses and gains in the blink of an eye. In a small breath. The quantum tunnel sparked at Bruce’s command and Steve appeared on the platform with the empty case. 

Sam was the first to break the silence. “How’d it go, man? That might’ve been the longest few seconds ever.”

“My bad.” After the harsh cold of Vormir, the sun beaming on Steve’s skin was enough to send him smiling. “I had to pick up a hitchhiker.”

Natasha stepped from behind Steve and off the platform, facing Bucky first. Their exchange carried memories and longing from decades past. Things they chose not to say at times for the sake of a current mission. During their fight after the Accords. When they came to Wakanda to get the stone without killing Vision. The distance closed between them and one metal hand went to Natasha’s face, cradling gently; perhaps in fear of her turning to dust as he had. 

She was real. Not a figment, not a dream. But alive and tearfully smiling before him. “I’m here, James.”

Bucky’s arms enveloped the Avenger in an embrace that she returned as tight as she could. Steve motioned for Sam to come talk to him, aside from the two. One eyebrow raised as Sam noticed a familiar shaped weapon on Steve’s back. “You pick up somethin’ in 2012?”

Hearing Sam’s voice again….it would take a while to get used to but Steve wouldn’t mind it at all. “You asked me once about what makes me happy.” A lifetime ago. “I think it’s time I figure that out.”

“You’re hanging up the shield.”

Steve lifted it from his shoulders with a coy grin. “Not exactly. Wanna try it on?”

He was kidding. He had to be. But Sam saw nothing but sincerity and ease that he’d never seen in Steve Rogers before. The first thing he noticed about the shield was that it was heavier than he thought. Seeing Steve wield it before, it seemed light. The metal shield carried serious weight and it wasn’t all literal. “It….feels like someone else’s.”

“It’s not.” 

The sun peaked higher and higher in the sky and a grateful, restored world basked in its rays. The former compound remained fractured, broken, and in ruins. Yet, light beamed from shattered metal and glass and reflects a hope rising from its ashes. A hope that for a small moment, had been forgotten in the sake of mourning. A chapter was closing on not only Steve’s life but in all of theirs. Their building was left decimated. One Avenger had been lost. Yet this ending indicated another beginning. For every loss, there was something gained. It was never truly over but now, there was peace. Buildings could be rebuilt even better than they once were. And though loved ones can never be replaced, there were always those who would rise to the occasion and do what’s needed. Those who would take on the mantle so that the symbol of a nation would never be forgotten. To carry on an idea of heroes that, no matter the lineup, would remain for all to see. An ideal of remarkable individuals that would stand for and become something much more. 

  
  



End file.
